


Night of Terror

by Hamyheikki



Category: Spider-Man - All Media Types, The Spectacular Spider-Man (Cartoon)
Genre: Comfort, M/M, Multi, Night Terrors, Polyamory, Sinister Six - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-15
Updated: 2019-09-15
Packaged: 2020-10-19 12:01:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20656919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hamyheikki/pseuds/Hamyheikki
Summary: Otto, having stayed up late, is about to head to bed when a spark of electricity catches his attention.It seems to be one of those nights.





	Night of Terror

**Author's Note:**

> For @angerydg, hope you like it my dude!

It wasn’t  _ that  _ late, realistically speaking. After all, he had stopped working somewhere around 1 am, a rather reasonable hour for a man in a profession such as his. And yet, as Otto made his way through the dimly lit corridors of the base alone, there was a thought in the back of his head that reproached him for that decision.

While they each had a separate room in the building, more often than not all six of them preferred to share a bed. Or, in practice, a pile of pillows and blankets big enough to fit Alexander’s prominent frame. It was quite comfortable arrangement once they all got used to it, and nowadays Otto couldn’t spend more than few night on his own before longing for the warmth and closeness of the others.

The downside, however, was the fact that he had a tendency to work later than the rest of the men. Alex and Flint were usually the first to lay down, followed shortly by Montana if he was home. Maxwell was typically up late, as was Adrian, although the older man rarely even made it to the bed before falling asleep in front of his workbench. Alex had made it a habit of his to go and fetch him during early hours of the morning. 

But most regularly, it was Otto who was the last one to crawl between the blankets. He always tried to keep his movements as silent and unnoticeable as possible, but every now and then he nudged someone awake, and every time he felt the same wave of guilt for doing so. 

He had thought about sleeping in his own room tonight, once he had shut down the machines from his lab and had headed upstairs. The door leading to his personal space was near the working quarters as well, so it would have made sense for him to simply slip into his own bed and get some sleep before the sun forced him awake again. But it had been too long of a day, and he’d found the company, even while unconscious, was what made those night bearable for him. Should he go and remain in his own room, Otto was certain not a wink of sleep would come to him. 

And thus he clicked off the lights in the hallway, and stepped inside the largest bedroom of the house.

The room was completely dark once he stepped into it. The thick curtains were pulled in front of the windows, and the small ray of light coming from the street lamps wasn’t enough to support itself in the otherwise lighteless space. Otto had navigated his way through the room numerous times, so it didn’t take long for him to find his footing, and despite the lack of light, within few minutes he was standing next to the mount of comforters. Squinting his eyes, he could see two bodies wrapped around each other near the far end of the pile; no doubt Flint and Alex, cuddling together as they often did when there were fewer people occupying the bed. Montana was not there, and in his mind, Otto let out a sigh of relief. He enjoy the man’s company, he really did, but sometimes having a set of cold feet pressed tightly against one’s back while trying to fall asleep just made the night a bit too difficult to suffer through. Adrian was absent as well, but judging from the lack of his clothes anywhere in the room, Otto knew he wasn’t going to retire anytime soon. A pity, but he couldn’t exactly fault the man. 

He wasn’t a hypocrite, after all.

As carefully as he could manage, Otto slid out from his vest and trousers, letting them sink to the floor beside the bed. He took away his glasses and set them down on the nearby tabletop. It took some fumbling in the dark, but eventually he found the corner of one of the blankets, and with a heavy breath of ease, he allowed his body to relax. The room had become unfocused with the loss of his glasses, but even so he was able to pull himself a bit further up, closer to the middle section of the huge bed. 

A sudden flash of light that soon followed caught him by surprise.

Just as he was about to reach out and yank one of the smoother pillows under his head, a sparkle of what seemed to be electricity flew past his startled eyes. Another one appeared once the first one faded, and this time Otto did sit up properly, eyes wide and searching. After a few swooping glances across the room, he noticed a shape moving around at the edge of the bed, almost falling to the cold floor from the looks of it. Frowning to himself, he shuffled closer. He already knew what he might find, and with that thought in mind he made sure to keep his distance.

There, squirming on the bed sheets, was Maxwell. His dark suit, one which he was forced to wear even while sleeping, made it difficult to distinguish where exactly did the man end and the blankets start. Without his glasses, Otto came near of making a mistake in his approach. He reached out, pulling back merely seconds before a line of energy surged over Maxwell’s arm, just beside the place of which Otto had been meaning to grasp a hold to.

A soft whimper was to be expected. As he tossed around in his sleep, the younger man let out a series of noises, low mumbling that occasionally rose to higher-pitched cries. From his place, a safe distance away, Otto saw two gloved hands curling up into tight fists, both of them coming to rest near Maxwell’s chest, pressing hard against the fabric of the suit. 

It wasn’t uncommon for the members of their peculiar little family to experience night terrors. In fact, with the type of life they all had led, it would be surprising if they all could pass their nights without such incidents. And as with every other problem, they all had their own ways of dealing with them; Alex would hide himself to the gym, sometimes accompanied by Flint if the mood allowed it, and would spend the night pounding the punching bags until he was too exhausted to dream anymore. Montana drank, or went and bought a packet of cigarettes to destroy his lungs with (a habit of which Otto had tried to rid him from, with little results). Adrian would never admit suffering from such “trivial inconveniences”, but Otto could tell when the oldest inhabitant of their home had gone through a rough night; scratch marks around his wrists and forearms were a telltale sign.

Out of all six of them, Maxwell was the one to succumb to the terrors most frequently. The poor man rarely remembered having an episode when the morning came, and in the privacy of his mind, Otto found himself relieved by that. It was hard, harder than he had once expected, to see someone you hold dear, sweating and crying in their sleep, their eyes suddenly snapping open while staring into nothing. And the suffocating noises that poured out... A shudder ran down Otto’s spine, and with that, he forced himself back to present.

It was rather obvious what the source of his particular nightmare was. From between wordless groans and pained hisses, Otto could pick up few pieces of sentences

_ "Make it stop!  _

_ Help!  _

_ Burns..." _

This was a familiar one. The evening of his transformation, the moment Max had re-lived more times than Otto could count. And so, he did what he had done on numerous night before.

With a steady hand, he grabbed one of the thicker blankets, one of which he and Adrian had fabricated precisely for this purpose. A blanket with isolation in the middle, a material strong enough to block out Max’s unintentional bursts of energy, and what made it possible for Otto to lean forward and wrap it securely around the writhing man beneath him. Keeping his movements gentle, he put more of his weight to it. Mindful of the sparkles and flares of power, he held on, curling his own arms around the shaking figure as well. 

Within minutes, the violent struggle eased, and after a while ceased completely. The silent, pleading noises remained, but even though the desperation in them made Otto’s stomach twist in sympathy, he could endure it. As long as the trembling body would remain unharmed, he could withstand it.

It didn’t make it easier, not in the long run. The way with which Max jerked up every five minutes always made his heart miss a beat, and there were moments where his own skin came too close to the openings in Max’s suit, earning him a minor shock before he pulled back. There were more words muttered, secrets breathed into his ear that caused Otto to shiver. Tales half-told, some of which Otto didn’t wish to hear the ending to.

But he did hold on. Even as the sleep began to claim him, he tightened his grip for the last time, pulling the softly glowing body closer to him. The strands of errant electricity be damned.

He would stay there until the morning. 

He always did.


End file.
